


We Won in the End

by for_t2



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adventure, Alphabet, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Happy Ending, Hope, Light Angst, Non-Linear Narrative, Outer Space, Post-Canon, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2
Summary: Catra and Etheria, rebuilding life and love in 26 snapshots. Spoilers for S5
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 84





	We Won in the End

**Adventure!**

Of all the planets they had to crash land on, it had to be a wet planet. A very wet planet, with dripping rain, and dripping leaves, and dripping everything. It didn’t matter how many trees and bushes she tried to hide under, the water still soaked Catra to the bone.

Even huddling next to Adora as she tried to start a proper fire couldn’t warm her up. And even the entertaining argument taking place just a few short metres away couldn’t distract her.

“I just had to—” 

“It was an excellent opportunity to examine the fire suppression systems—”

“And I’ve come up with the perfect shanty for—”

“Ugh!”

Catra huddled up a little closer to Adora and a little further away from the still smoking wreck of their ship. “I can’t believe we were losing to you.”

**Bravery**

Catra hesitated at the edge of the flower garden. Wrinkled her nose at the sickly sweet smell of the thousands of flowers.

This was a bad idea. The more peaceful the world outside her got, the harder it got for her to concentrate. The more her thoughts jumped from one memory to another and the more everything just kinda… buzzed.

Kinda like the annoying little bee buzzing around her face and spreading little specks of pollen and-- 

“Achoo!”

A head popped out of the bush right next to her. “Catra?”

Catra jumped back a few steps. “Perfuma!” Smoothed out her tail. “Um, hi.”

“Do you like my flowers? Adora really like the—”

“Um, sure. Perfuma.” For a few moments, they just stood here. Awkwardly. Before Catra drew in a deep breath. “Um, listen. Remember when you asked me about meditation?”

**Catnip**

The last thing Catra could remember was landing on a new planet.

Yet, somehow, here she was, sprawled out on a bench in the ship, with the entirety of the Best Friend Squad staring her, eyes wide. Staring at her from the other side of a force field.

“Hey, Adora.” Catra slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position. Tried to rub the headache out of her eyes. “Um.” Slowly took in the sight of her surroundings. “What happened?”

**Destiny**

They always seemed to find themselves up here. Some nights, one of them found it hard to sleep, and when one couldn’t sleep, the other couldn’t either.

After a while, once they got fed up of fidgeting in bed, they got up and wandered the halls of Bright Moon. And they always ended up in the same place, perched on the roof under the stars.

“Did you ever think we’d end up here?”

“Nah.” There were a lot of futures Catra had imagined. A lot of which she knew were going to come. Yet, somehow, she ended up here. “Did you?”

“Nah.”

**Education**

“This is humiliating.”

“Shh!”

Catra shrunk back from Castaspella. Bit back a retort when Adora squeezed her hand. “She means well.” She being her royal highness, her glittering majesty Queen Sparkles, who, when faced with a crowd of ex-Horde child soldiers, decided that the best way to integrate them into Etherian society would be to send them to this thing she called “school.”

All of them.

Castaspella plunked another sheet of paper (called a “test”) in front of her. Catra couldn’t help herself from letting out a hiss.

**Forgiveness**

“I think I’ll just…” Bow backed away from them. “Give you some privacy.” Hurried out the door, leaving Catra and Adora alone in the room.

Alone with it. After the dust had settled, Bow’s parents jumped on the chance to take a closer look at the newly uncovered First Ones ruins. All the brand new history, artefacts and tales a plenty. And that’s where they found it – a small shard of a red mask that Adora and Catra could recognise from a mile off.

“She’s gone.” Adora was the first to speak, and she spoke with such a firm finality to her voice that Catra almost believed it.

“You don’t know that.” Catra could feel her teeth grinding against each other. “She might—”

“She’s gone.” Adora marched over. Grabbed the shard. Smashed it under her feet. “I’ll never forgive her for what she did to us. What she did to you. But she’s gone.” She grabbed Catra’s hadn next. Led her away. “She’s gone and she’s never coming back.”

**Globe**

“Come on, Adora.” Catra smirked as she prowled around Adora. “Think of the children, Adora.”

“I can’t!” Adora fiddled with the straps on her dress. “What am I supposed to say?”

“Does it matter? The tiny ones adore you.” Catra chuckled at her own stupid joke. It was funny because it was true. “And you know I’m just going to make fun of you anyways.”

“You’re not helping.”

To be fair, Catra thought the idea was stupid. It’s not something she would’ve been able to do. But, as Sparkles had patiently (at first) explained, as She-Ra and saviour of the universe, Adora has a duty to perform her stately functions and blah blah blah. And when the kids from one of the villages decide to put on a play in your honour, apparently that means you have to give a speech. “Come on, you know you’ll like the attention.”

Adora rolled her eyes, but still let Catra wrap her arms around her.

“Besides,” Catra purred. “You definitely have my attention.” It was a really nice dress.

**Heartbeat**

It turns out that being apart for a few years (AKA: being mortal enemies for a few years) had its benefits. Or, at least, what Catra was determined to think of as benefits.

For one, it allowed her to discover all over again just how great it was to cuddle up to Adora (thinking of it as re-discovery helped her forget how much she missed it). It was warm and soft and they just fit so right together and the steady sound of her heart was comfortable -was home – in a way that Catra couldn’t quite put into words.

So, instead, she just snuggled up a little closer and purred.

**Interstellar**

“Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!”

Catra had to dodge out of the path of a warpspeed Entrapta. The Great Magical Best Friend Squad Space Trek (as Bow insisted it was called) had just launched, and energy was running high. Literally running, in Entrapta’s case.

“Adora…” Catra strode across the bridge and leaned over on the main chair. “Are we there yet?”

“We just launched!”

Catra blinked. “Hey.” Stared down at the person in the chair. “You’re not Adora.”

“Duh.” Glimmer glared at her. “Somebody has to take some responsibility and—”

“Spaaaaaaaaaaaaace!” Catra was almost knocked to the ground as Bow and Adora jumped them from behind. “We’re in space! We’re in space!”

The look Catra and Glimmer shared was one of mutual suffering.

**Juice**

Catra had to bend over to get a good look at the glasses.

“Why are these so small?”

“All the better for the tastes of our glorious brothers as we dine in celebration tonight!” Wrong Hordak literally threw his hands in the air. “We will toast the revolution! We will toast our glorious friendship! We will toast—”

“Yeah, yeah.” Catra took a sniff of one of them. “I don’t think you get it. Adora eats a lot. Like, a lot.”

“Then we shall make more—”

“You don’t get it!” Catra was still working on that anger problem. “Adora just saved the world. She needs to recover. Everything needs to be perfect.” Wrong Hordak blinked at her. Catra quickly retracted her claws. “Please?”

**Knock**

Bow quickly slammed the door behind him. Very quickly.

“Next time,” Glimmer whispered, “we knock.”

“Yup.” Bow inched away from Adora’s bedroom as quickly and silently as he could. “Yup, yup, yup.”

**Leak**

At first, it had been amusing. Bringing magic back to the world, as worthwhile as it might be, was pretty exhausting. And if it had been exhausting for Catra, it must’ve been even more exhausting for Adora.

Hence why she was passed out on the floor of their makeshift shelter. Catra had tried to argue that they could on the ship, where it was warm and, more importantly, not wet, but Entrapta had insisted that she need some alone time to make repairs.

When the rain started to drip through the shelter’s roof, the first thing felt was vindication. The second, when the drips started landing right on Adora’s forehead, was laughter. As much as she loved Adora, but she talks in her sleep.

But it get less amusing when Adora started to squirm. When the sleepy mumblings turned into mutterings.

“Adora?” Catra reached a hand over. Tried to stir her. “Adora? Are you—”

“No!” Adora jerked up. Pulled her sword out from the blankets. “Catra, don’t…” Slowly, Adora’s eyes focused. Slowly, she realised that she had pinned Catra to the ground, her sword at her throat. “Catra?”

**Maddening**

Catra stopped at the sound of the snickering next to her. “What?”

Adora smirked. “Are you scared?”

“No,” Catra growled. “I’m just being sensible.” They were on a new unknown planet, with lots of tall (very tall) trees, and it’s not that Catra has a problem with trees or going up trees (she is, after all, very good at climbing them), it’s the going down. Especially since…

“Sensible?” Adora scoffed. “Well, watch this!” And ran right for the biggest gap between branches she could find. And jumped.

“Adora!”

Somehow, Adora’s feet just landed on the other side. And teetered. And… balanced. Adora leaned against the tree trunk with a smirk that Catra found far too attractive. “Told you.” And stuck out her tongue.

“Arrow?” She muttered at Bow, not managing to take her eyes off Adora. “Would it be romantic if I killed her?”

Bow aimed his bow. “Didn’t you try that already?” Shot a grappling hook across the gap. And jumped with a mighty cry.

“I really can’t believe we were losing to you.”

**North**

Adora shifted her sword into a compass again. “We’re definitely going north.”

“Well then we should be there!” Catra tried flipping the map upside down. But no, they should definitely be back at the ship by now.

“But we’re not.”

“I noticed.” There was a reason Catra had insisted on being the one in charge of navigation, and it was to avoid this exact eventuality. “Are sure we’re going north?”

Adora shoved the compass into Catra’s hands. “What does it say?”

Catra glared at the needle. “North.”

“So then where’s the…” Adora frowned. Plucked the map out of Catra’s hands. Flipped it upside down. “Did you take the wrong map?”

**Obstinate**

Catra shifted her hands on the great table of Bright Moon. Kept her gaze steady on Mermista.

“You can’t win this, Horde scum.”

“Just watch me.”

“Nobody has ever beaten me before.”

“Why?” Catra drawled in her most provocative tone. “You too stubborn?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I almost destroyed the world.” Catra slammed her hand down on the table. “Because I was too stubborn to listen to my girlfriend!” She leaned back in her chair, completely ignoring the facepalms from certain members of their audience, and crossed her arms. “Beat that.”

Mermista glanced down at her cards. “Ugh, fine.” She pushed her cards away. “I fold.”

**Perfection**

“Quit messing with it!” Glimmer slapped Catra’s hand away from her collar. “It looks fine.”

“Is Adora going to think it looks fine?” Scorpia’s first ball was also the first time Catra had worn anything formal since… well, since she was evil. And as much as Catra logically knew that she looked good in a red suit, there was a part of her that, well, knew it was logical to be nervous.

“Yes.” Glimmer put in her most matter-of-fact voice (and impressively regal matter-of-fact voice). “She’s going to think it looks—”

“Perfect?”

Despite her nervousness, Catra found herself smiling. “Hey, Adora.”

She let Adora run her hands around her collar, fingers just brushing past the scar on the back of her neck, and straighten it. That done, Adora took a step back. Looked her over from head to heels.

“What do you think?”

Adora unclipped her brooch from her dress. Pinned on to Catra. Smiled. “Yeah.”

**Queer**

“For the honour…” Adora drew her sword high into the air. “Of Gayskull!”

It took Adora a while, but eventually she stumbled onto a realisation. Since the magic of She-Ra was inside her, she could shout whatever she wanted when she transformed in She-Ra. Technically, she didn’t even need to shout, but it sounded cooler when she did.

And so she spent a solid week doing nothing but coming up with new catch-phrases. But in the end, she decided to stick with the classic.

She figured Mara would appreciate it.

**Ready**

Catra stopped a few steps away from the ship’s ramp. Hesitated.

The rebuilding on Etheria was well underway, and Catra had spent almost every single waking moment doing whatever she could to pitch in. But still, it didn’t feel like enough. And now that the Best Friend Squad (a name that, with every passing week, was making her eyes roll less and less) was departing off to space, to bring magic back to every planet in the cosmos, it especially felt like it wasn’t enough.

She still had so much to do here. So much she had atone for, so much she had to repair, so much…

“You ready?” Adora stepped back down the ramp. Held her hand out for Catra.

“I…” Catra looked back. At the crowd that was waving goodbye and cheering her on to leave. Cheering her on because they knew she’d be back. Because they had faith in her. “Yeah.”

**Stinger**

“So.” Catra had finally managed to pull Scorpia away from Perfuma and away from her rapidly growing circle of friends (Scorpia was good with people like that). “I’m not really sure where to start.”

“Hey, don’t worry, wildcat.” Scorpia patted her on the shoulder. “It’s okay. You don’t have to.”

“No,” Catra shook her head. “I have to. You deserve it.”

Scorpia sat down across from Catra. Settled in. “Then I’m here to listen.”

Catra nodded. Drew in a deep breath. “Scorpia, I’m sorry. For everything.”

**Time**

As much as she was loathe to admit it (which was something else she was working on), Catra had to admit that the meditation sessions were working.

“And… breathe.” Perfuma cracked her eyes open. Smiled warmly. “I think we’re done for today.” She gathered her gardening supplies up. “I have to meet Scorpia for lunch. I promised I’d bring the flowers.”

Catra watched as she gently plucked a few assorted flowers off their vines. “Perfuma?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think it’s ever going to go away?” Catra’s tail dropped low. “The guilt, I mean?”

Perfuma pondered the question for a few seconds. “I don’t know.”

“It’s okay.” Catra picked herself off the ground. Stretched. “I don’t know either.” She plucked a flower of her own out of the bushes. For Adora, obviously. “But I guess I have to hope, eh?”

**Undefeated**

The first time Bow found them in the Bright Moon garden, he understandably freaked out a little. The second time, he made sure to keep an eye on them. The third time, he actively cheered them on.

Sparring, Catra and Adora had mutually decided, was a great way to wake up. It got them moving, it got them thinking, and now that they didn’t have Shadow Weaver breathing down their necks, it was fun. And, of course, it always led to another intense and very (very) fun form of exercise.

“Hah!” Adora flexed as she sent Catra tumbling. “Six in a row! I’m the champion of Etheria!”

“You’re keeping track?”

“What?” Catra smirked. She had caught Adora off guard. “No, of course not. This is just fun. Of course, I’m not keeping track.” Adora frowned. “Are you?”

Catra shifted her weight, ready to pounce. “I bet I’m doing a better job of keeping track than you are.”

Adora smirked. “You’re on.”

**Vengeance**

It was to be expected. After all, Catra had pissed off a lot of people both inside and outside the Horde. And as much as Etheria was rainbows and happiness these days, some wounds heal slowly, if ever.

“It’s okay.”

“No, Catra, it’s not!” Catra couldn’t get Adora to stop pacing. “She hurt you!”

“I think I hurt her first.”

“That doesn’t make it okay!” At least Catra had been able to stop her from charging off, sword in hand. “She hurt you.”

“No, it doesn’t make it okay.” A lesson Catra had learned the hard way. A lesson that Catra would do everything she could never to forget. “But it makes it my responsibility to fix. I’m trying to do this whole enlightened peace thing.” She smiled at Adora’s small chuckle. “Do you think it’s working?”

Adora threw her arms around her. Hugged her as tightly as she could (which, given Adora’s muscles, was quite tightly). “Just promise me you won’t get hurt.”

“I promise.”

**Wet**

“Um, Catra?” Adora scooted away from Catra. Not far away, but just enough distance to make it easier to breathe.

“What’s wrong? Have I—”

“I’ve, um, never really done this before.”

Catra would’ve said Adora’s blush was adorable if she wasn’t being such an idiot right now. “Do you think I have?”

“No?”

Catra leaned towards Adora. Put her forehead to hers. “It’s always been you.” And, she didn’t dare add, hopefully always will. “Always.” After a second, she added, “When you mess up, I won’t be to tell, so don’t worry.”

“When?”

“Well, yeah.” Catra started tracing her fingers across Adora’s skin. “Not everybody can be as naturally talented as me, and that’s—”

After Adora tackled her, Catra didn’t have time to say anything else.

**Xenomorph**

“How did it get into the ship?”

“Entrapta!”

“Wasn’t me! I like robots better!”

“Then…”

“Doesn’t matter!”

As much as the Best Friend Squad tried to hide behind She-Ra’s imposing bulk, it was hard to escape the conclusion that the… thing was just a little more imposing.

“Run!”

**Yearning**

“Oh, Catra.” Double Trouble put their hand on their heart with every bit of dramatic flair they could muster. “I know that you’re a Horde leader and I’m a princess, and it would be impossible for us to be together.”

“But,” they shapeshifted again. “My oodles of childhood trauma sometimes prevent me from seeing the truth. Oh, Adora.” They clenched their fists. “I love you so much I almost forget to brood!”

They shapeshifted back. “Just because you tried to destroy the universe doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends.”

“Or maybe more.”

They let out the most dramatically shocked gasp anyone could imagine. “No! We mustn’t!”

They shapeshifted back again. “Kiss me!”

“Bite me,” Catra rolled her eyes harder than she had ever done before. Double Trouble’s idea of introducing them to a new group of strangers was… maybe amusing wasn’t the word Catra would use. But, when Catra saw how hard Adora was laughing, well, maybe she could laugh too.

**Zyzzyva**

“So…” Catra sunk back into the bed at Bright Moon, the exhaustion of the battle for the universe draining away. The bed which, she guessed, was hers now. Was theirs. “It’s all over, huh?”

Adora turned over to look at her. “No.” Cradled Catra’s face in her hands. “I think we’re just getting started.”

**Author's Note:**

> Zyzzyva is a genus of weevils, which has apparently been the last word in most English-language dictionaries since 2017ish (apparently)
> 
> Credit for DT's wonderful performance goes to Cordelia Chase, agent of the Powers-That-Be, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, rogue demon hunter


End file.
